


Strangers In The Night

by Triddlegrl



Series: Thanks Sinatra [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 17:42:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1313608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Triddlegrl/pseuds/Triddlegrl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two strangers, two weddings. One fate. When is it too late to finally fall in love?</p><p>*This story is finished. Though it is part of a series that follows the plot of one of my favorite guilty pleasure Rom Coms. It Had To Be You. If you know that movie then you can probably guess some of the things that will happen in it. :) Or maybe I'll switch it up down the line, who knows. But this part can be enjoyed as a one shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strangers In The Night

If not for Frank Sinatra Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel might have made the biggest mistake of their lives. But I should probably start at the beginning.

This story starts for one in a kitchen in Paris, where Blaine Anderson was sitting with his fiancé combing through exactly six stacks of vintage record albums and biting his lip in frustration. Blaine considered himself something of a music connoisseur, his repertoire extensive while maintaining the highest level of taste; and Blaine didn’t doubt that his friends and loved ones would be judging his musical taste with critical ears all the way from the top of the ceremony to the last note of the reception. He was determined to make it special.

The problem was that he and his fiancé had widely different musical tastes. Blaine loved a fun pop number as much as the next guy (sometimes as much as three guys) but he wasn’t just going to play anything at his wedding, and when it came to really speaking from the heart he was all about the classics. Whether it was rock or a soaring ballad, there was just something about the sound of a classic record. The men and women whose time worn albums littered his table were true artists, artists whose souls had been poured out and immortalized in the sound of plinking notes and the thrum and twang of guitar strings.

He wanted that for his wedding day, but Sebastian Smythe (the other half in the Anderson-Smythe wedding extravaganza) did not agree.

“Sinatra? _Really_?” The fond way he looked at Blaine sort of lessened the sting of the derisive snort he couldn’t quite stifle. “I thought we saved the date for June 2022, not 1920. I thought we agreed to keep this modern?”

If you’re wondering why Blaine didn’t see the problem right off the bat, then it might help you to know that while he normally wouldn’t consider marriage to anyone who didn’t know that ‘All The Way’ was released in 1959 and most certainly wouldn’t transport a single guests back to 1920, he and Sebastian have come through a lot to be together.

From the pressures of private school, through the demands of college, and under the crushing weight of their parent’s expectations, Sebastian had been his constant. When Blaine was halfway through med school waking up from nightmares about parking lots and strangers with bats, still suffering hunger pains for piano bars and smoke lit stages, he’d thought he might crack beneath it all and land somewhere on the front page of the New York Times in a drowned mess. It was Sebastian who reminded him that the best kind of ‘fuck you’ was to survive.

They’d been surviving together ever since and that’s why Blaine wanted Sinatra’s “All The Way” as their first dance; because he had so much to thank his partner for, the least of all growing up. He’d given up on waiting for perfect love and realized that love was something you had to make happen.

Which was why, even though it meant he would be missing out on an important step in their wedding planning, when Sebastian announced that he had to stay in Paris another couple of days and could not return with him to New York Blaine did not let his disappointment show.

~*~

Blaine’s flight to New York got delayed, which was how Blaine found himself down aways from his gate at a small store selling newspapers and paperback books. He was perusing through their minimal selection, humming happily along to Sinatra’s “Strangers In The Night”, when he first saw Kurt Hummel.

Later Blaine would remember the sound of his luggage dragging where that one worn wheel always got stuck, the glint of the sunglasses Kurt had hanging from his collar, the shy way he glanced away when their eyes caught and held for an inexplicably heavy moment as he swept past; but now he’s just left remembering old dreams. It’s brought back to him by the feint hint of Burberry cologne, the sight of a beautiful stranger, and the idea that two lonely people can find their forever in a single glance.

~*~

He saw him again on the plane, three rows up on the opposite isle seat. The handsome stranger’s eyes flickered in surprise when they recognized his, then his lips tilted into something close to a grin. Coincidences are funny like that.

~*~

When Sebastian took that job in Paris and Blaine followed him, he left his best friend Sam Evans back in New York. Most of his friends still lived there, and it was easier for their families to get to, which was why he and Sebastian planned to have the wedding there. Or, I guess you could say _Blaine_ was planning the wedding because Sebastian had to work. Lawyers are busy people, as Blaine had learned over the years.

They’re kind of perfect for each other, in that they both have busy and very important work. He knew they were blessed and that he shouldn’t complain.

It was Blaine’s first time seeing Sam’s new place, so he got lost a bit on the way there but he did eventually find it and Sam, who greeted him with a bear hug the likes to put grizzlies to shame.

“Just throw your stuff on the couch bed, we can get it later. Are you hungry? I know an amazing hot dog guy,” Sam offered but Blaine declined, jet lagged from the long flight.

“Thanks but I think I’ll just chill for a while. I like the new place.”

Sam had traded the much bigger apartment they’d shared when Blaine’s parents were footing half the bill for a smaller one above a café in the lower east side. It was quaint and a bit cluttered but down to every last crack in the wall it was Sam. Blaine loved it.

The building only had two floors above it so he was lucky enough to only have one neighbor: some singer that try as he might he hadn’t managed to meet yet with an “epic” set of pipes. Sam talked about hearing her practice as he fixed himself a giant sub sandwich and Blaine teased him about falling in love with ghosts.

“What if she doesn’t have a body? What if her voice just floats through the halls haunting the building and you’ve been falling in love with someone dead this whole time?”

“Shut up. You’re just jealous that I’ve got a musical goddess living next door and you’re stuck waking up to Sebastian breaking mirrors in the shower every morning.”

“Correction you’re jealous of my stable and loving relationship with my hot boyfriend, who has a lovely singing voice by the way, and there is only one reining musical goddess and her name is—”

“If you say something like, Katy Perry, I swear I’ll punch you.” Sam mock glared at him as Blaine laughed from over on the couch. He took a hefty bite of his sandwich and chewed rapidly for a moment before swallowing and heaving a heartfelt sigh. “But, for real, I think you’re right about the jealous part. You know how I feel about Sebastian but, I don’t know, you two make it work. Maybe I should give it a shot.”

“Sebastian and I work because we work at it,” Blaine reminded him gently. “Love is about two people working together to make things work. When you find someone who treats you well, treat them well and see what happens.”

Sam contemplated it silently while he ate the rest of his sandwich, thinking to himself that Blaine probably had a good point. Blaine had always been smarter about that kind of stuff. Maybe Sam should stop chasing fantasies and start building something real.

He made a promise to himself to start that very night with work. He hated to leave Blaine alone his first night back in New York but he was scheduled to work the night shift. Blaine insisted that he would be fine and shooed Sam out the door, but it took only twenty minutes alone with nothing thrilling on the television for the boredom to set in.

He set about tidying up the kitchen, Sam had never been the neatest, and he was deeply involved with tackling the jungle that was his friend’s refrigerator when he heard the distant sound of a song. At first he thought it must be Sam’s neighbor, but it didn’t seem to be coming from the wall. It was drifting in from the open bedroom door and Blaine followed it curiously to find that Sam had left his window open and the sound was drifting in from outside.

Someone was singing on the fire escape and for a moment Blaine just stood and listened. Whoever they were it was clear they were born to sing, made for it, and every note of the song pulled at something within him until his chest was tight with longing; it was the kind of song made for sighing. Blaine would know.

He was at the window before he even realized it, staring down at a man with familiar coifed hair, with a soft smile and asking, “You a Sinatra fan?”

The man started, whipping around to stare up at Blaine, and there he was again, the stranger from the airport.

Up close it was impossible for Blaine not to notice the blue of his eyes, or the breadth of his shoulders, but it was the memory of his voice that had his breath hitching because beautiful just wasn’t good enough for it.

His stranger smiled, recognizing him, the warm light of surprise in his eyes as he shook his head, his lips tilting in what was becoming a familiarly slight way.

“Hepburn actually,” he replied in that same unfairly melodic tone. He had to be Sam’s musical Goddess, had to be, and in that case Blaine needed to have a firm talk with his friend about stereotyping and effemiphobia. But Blaine’s thoughts of Sam scattered and fled when his stranger smiled again and admitted, “I like Sinatra too, just don’t tell Audrey.”

He was about to say he wouldn’t dream of it, about to ask him what his favorite song was, what he liked to eat in the mornings, whether he slept on his right or his left side, if he thought dancing to a song about giving someone your everything on your wedding day was as beautiful as he thought it was, when a voice called from inside the apartment below and his stranger got up and crawled back through the open window of his bedroom, smiling at him apologetically and shrugging.

“My name’s Blaine by the way. Blaine Anderson,” Blaine came out of his fog to call at his stranger’s disappearing back, his stomach sinking when he realized that the moment was ending, along with his chance to know anything about the other man. Until the stranger appeared at his window again, sticking his head out to grin up at Blaine with his teeth biting shyly at his bottom lip and a small smile.

“I’m Kurt Hummel. Sorry I’ve got to run… but maybe we’ll run in to each other again later?”

Kurt Hummel. Now they were no longer strangers in the night. Blaine thought about him as he prepared for sleep that night, and if he found himself lingering by Sam’s bedroom window at odd moments he didn’t think about the why of it too much.

*~*

Kurt’s part of this story did not begin in Paris, though he was there doing a shoot with Vogue before catching a flight to New York. His story began in London, but he hasn’t been there in two weeks, and with so much travel under his belt he was beginning to feel a bit adrift. He didn’t really know where home was anymore, but it didn’t feel like it was in London. He tried hard squashing the voice that insisted it never had.

It shouldn’t be so lonely, following your dreams. Though Kurt had seen quite a few of them deferred over the years he’d made his peace with a promising career at Vogue. People did a lot worse than that.

He stared down at the silver embedded band on his right hand and flexed the fingers. He and Adam were both pursuing their dreams, and finally finding success. He had a great job and a great fiancé. It was small of him to want more.

But small of him or not he still breathed a sigh of relief when his feet hit New York soil again for the first time since graduation and he still wanted to cling to Mercedes and never let her go when she picked him up at the airport and breathed the words “welcome home” soft and loving into his ear. He still found his way out to the fire escape, staring out over the city and longing for more than his fair share.

“ _…dream maker, you heartbreaker… wherever you're going I'm going your way …_ ”

He didn’t realize he was singing again until Mercedes looked up from her phone and gave him a knowing look.

“What?” He asked.

“That’s the fifth time you’ve started singing ‘Moon River’. You okay?”

He thought about long eyelashes that swept over olive cheeks, eyes flecked with honey, and the smell of raspberries and smiled before he caught himself.

“Yeah, just missing home I guess.”

It was expected, so as excuses went it was perfect. Only Mercedes didn’t look like she believed him.

~*~*~

Kurt had been planning his wedding since he was exactly four and he saw The Philadelphia Story with Kathrine Hepburn and Cary Grant. So now that it was _go time_ he knew exactly where he wanted to start. Blue was one of New York’s most up and coming event planners, and it’s founder Tina Chang had a specialty for same sex weddings. She’d once been Manhattan's (and not to mention Kurt’s) best kept secret but after planning a reality star wedding that had the internet abuzz for weeks her business had taken off. So much so that nine months out from his own wedding Kurt was lucky to get an appointment with her, as he observed when he overheard her receptionist telling some unlucky someone that Tina was booked solid for the next month.

So how did Kurt manage to score a personal consultation on such short notice?

“Kurt!” Tina squealed when her assistant led him through her office doors, her face lighting up with joy as they met in an enthusiastic hug. “I’m so happy to see you.”

It’s always about who you know. Kurt had met Tina in a costume design course at university. They’d befriended each other over music, pizza, and late night bitching and stitching sessions while the theater department worked them like drones.

She pulled away from the hug to get a good look at him, grin going ecstatic when she spotted the engagement ring on his right hand.

“I can’t believe you’re taking the plunge. When I got your call I almost lost it,” she chattered excitedly snatching up his hand to gaze admiringly at the silver band and Kurt laughed.

“Well I’m still pinching myself so I guess we’re even. I’m not putting you out am I, calling up out of the blue?”

Tina waved away his concern with an impatient hand and breezed through telling him that she’d had to rearrange some things but it was most definitely not a problem.

“Do you think I’d pass up a chance to plan a wedding for _the_ Kurt Hummel?” She winked at him with a knowing expression and Kurt rolled his eyes, though he couldn’t quite help the thrill of excitement he always felt when he thought about the fact that his very first line was going to be featured in Vogue. 

He didn’t care what anyone said about his taking ‘the fast track’ working for the magazine, he’d started out as nothing but an intern in a completely different office and he’d had to work for every inch of ground he’d gained since, while somehow finding the time to design in whatever spare time he could conjure out of thin air. He’d damn well be smug about it if he pleased.

Tina gestured for him to have a seat in either of the chairs in front of her desk and as they both took their seats she asked, “So give me the lay out. Will Adam be joining us at all this week?”

“No.” Kurt hoped his voice didn’t betray any of his annoyance about that but Tina’s eyes flickered to his with a questioning look so Kurt felt the need to explain. “Rehearsals. And you know this isn’t really his thing. _He_ still thinks we’re feeding into heteronormative and patriarchal social constructs that should be allowed to fade away.” He laughed, and Tina tried something that might have been a smile but fell short mostly due to the pained expression on her face.

“Which I can respect,” Kurt rushed to add. “It’s just that…”

He trailed off, not sure what to say that wouldn’t make him look like more of an inconsiderate jerk than he already felt. He knew why his fiancé had always hated the idea of marriage. Of course he did. It was never that he thought Adam was out to hurt him personally or _take_ something from him, but somehow in the soup of living day to day and putting away those boxes of dreams he’d been holding since he was a boy playing with his toys and making wishes, it always managed to come around to feeling that way.

He and Adam would fight, they’d both feel like assholes, they’d apologize, Kurt would swear he didn’t need to be married to be happy and committed, and life would go on until the next time Adam caught him getting misty eyed over a pair of onscreen lover’s saying ‘I Do’.

It all had gotten to be too much, to the point where Kurt had worried they would crack beneath the strain when Adam had done the single most romantic thing he’d ever done. He’d called Kurt up to the stage after a show and told him that from the first moment he’d seen him he’d wanted to make him happy and that would never change. Then he’d proposed.

Kurt hadn’t stopped pinching himself since.

“Kurt you’ve wanted this for as long as I’ve known you.” Tina’s gentle voice broke through his thoughts. He wasn’t sure he deserved it, but it was such a relief to see the understanding in her eyes and feel the warmth of her hand as she placed it over his. “And regardless of everything else, this should be about the two of you. It’s your day… make it about how much you love each other and celebrate that with the people who love you. There’s no crime in that, right?”

Kurt was right in the middle of nodding gratefully when there was a hesitant rap on the door and Tina’s assistant Sherry poked her head in the door.

“Sorry to disturb you Mrs. Chang, but I overlooked rearranging your nine thirty appointment and Blaine’s here…” Kurt immediately felt bad for the woman who looked ready to start kicking herself when Tina’s smile dipped into a frustrated scowl.

“Should I send him away?” Sherry asked meekly and Tina heaved a sigh.

“No, don’t. I don’t want Blue to start gaining a reputation as being disorganized. Don’t give me that look Kurt.” Kurt jumped in his seat when Tina rounded on him. Her smile was creeping back. “It isn’t your fault, mistakes happen, and I’m still happy to do your wedding no matter how much undeserved guilt you try to heap on yourself, end of story.”

To Sherry she waved toward the door and said, “Send him in so I can reschedule. A personal touch never hurts, and maybe the chance to meet a famous fashion designer will help smooth things over.” She winked in Kurt’s direction and he rolled his eyes again, but didn’t bother trying to hide the grin this time.

He was still grinning when he heard Sherry return.

“Blaine. It’s good to see you again. I’m so sorry about this mix up—”

As Tina stood to greet the man trailing after Sherry Kurt glanced up from his phone long enough to register slick hair and a sweater vest-bow tie ensemble that gave him that inexplicably pleasant rush he typically reserved for spotting marked down designer wear. It wasn’t a look for everyone but this man undoubtedly pulled it off, but that wasn’t the reason Kurt’s heart thudded hard in his chest and that initial rush of delight turned into a virtual wave.

“Blaine?” Kurt couldn’t help but gape. His only saving grace was that Blaine had turned to stare at him mid handshake with Tina and seemed to have forgotten the woman’s existence.

“Kurt?” He asked in disbelief, as if he expected someone to start laughing and shout ‘got yah’. But then a moment later his face was splitting into a wide grin so sunlit, Kurt felt himself blush. Something warm tickled in his belly and he fought not to fidget as Blaine approached him, bringing with him that same scent of Rasberry that Kurt had caught the night before. Tina followed after him with a brow arched and a questioning look.

“So, you two know each other?” She asked, but neither of them answered. Kurt didn’t know how to answer that question because he really _didn’t_ know Blaine, and he suddenly felt embarrassed by the way he’d disrupted Tina’s work with his outburst. Blaine for his part seemed just as lost, but he rallied quicker than Kurt, finally breaking their eye contact to turn to Tina and babble a reply.

“Oh no, Kurt was on my flight over. Turns out he lives in the apartment below where I’m staying and—”

“I don’t,” Blaine started when Kurt jumped in, the need to correct his assumption too strong to wait.

“Mercedes, my girlfriend, she lives there. I’m just staying with her for the week.”

“Oh.OH” Blaine’s eyes lit up in revelation, “the musical Goddess. Sam, the friend I’m staying with, he likes her voice,” he clarified a moment later when he noticed Kurt and Tina’s befuddled expressions.

Kurt grinned at that. The only one who took more pride in his friend’s voice than him was probably Mercedes herself.

“I’ll have to tell her that. So what are you doing in New York?”

He’d been dying to know. That and a hundred other silly things since their paths kept crossing, and the question leapt off his tongue before he could think it through. He could say this about Blaine, he still blushed like a young boy, and he wore bashfulness as adorably as he wore a bowtie.

“I’m here planning my wedding,” he answered the obvious and the pause that followed was so awkward it was painful. Kurt said the first thing that came to mind just to relieve the silence.

“Great, that’s good me too.” His face hurt he was grinning so forcefully, but what he really wanted was to sink into the ground and disappear. Blaine congratulated him hesitating only briefly before he inquired if it was to his girlfriend. It took Kurt a moment to figure out what he was talking about and when he did he barked a laugh.

“Oh no no no. Mercedes is my friend. No I’m gay, very gay, my fiancés gay too so we’re both guys.”

Tina’s snort effectively stopped the rush of word vomit, so maybe he should have been thankful but right then Kurt couldn’t muster it. He glared at her, promising death, and tried to keep his breathing even when Blaine’s handsome face split into this slow, much too intimate for nearly a stranger, smile as he mostly failed not to laugh.

Weirdly enough, it made Kurt want to smile too. The embarrassment slid away, leaving nothing but bright bubbling mirth as the two of them broke into laughter.

Tina eyed them both with a smirk.

“Kurt’s an old friend of mine from college, so when he called in last week with a special request I couldn’t say no. That’s where all the confusion with scheduling started. So if you have any complaints you want to log start with him.”

Kurt was just starting to glare at her again when Blaine’s warm chuckle stole his attention again and he got lost somewhere between Blaine’s soft gaze and the gentle tease of his voice as he replied, “It is inconvenient, but maybe if we discussed it over lunch I might be persuaded not to write a scathing yelp review.”

He didn’t say a word. Kurt, it seemed, had lost all ability to properly function when Blaine walked in the room. Maybe it was his cologne. Did he even wear cologne? He must because: rasberries. He wasn’t close enough to possibly recognize a brand. Was it weird to want to get close enough to someone to smell them? To inhale and be surrounded by the smell of skin and soap and perfumed scents, weird to want to memorize such things?

“That,” Tina clapped her hands together enthusiastically. “Is a great idea.”

“Wait what is?” Kurt’s brain seemed to kick start as he could feel control of the situation slipping away from him.

“Meeting for lunch, on Blue of course,” Tina blinked innocently at him. “That is if you both don’t mind a joint session?” Kurt narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her. He knew Tina’s innocent expressions well and they always meant she was up to something.

“Won’t it be hard to focus with two different weddings to plan at once?” He challenged and Tina grinned at him, waving his concerns away.

“The first consultation is all very preliminary. It’s really just a chance for you both to share your dreams with me and for me to take notes. Why do it in a stuffy office? Come on,” she wheedled after a moment when neither of them bit the bait. “This way I get to apologize for messing up, you both get your consultations, and there’s free lunch involved.”

Kurt looked to Blaine to find the other man looking at him with the same hopeful glance. His heart thudded.

“I don’t mind, really,” Blaine insisted quietly. “Besides, with the way we keep running into each other it’s probably fate.”

“I’d say so” Tina agreed nodding sagely. She was _definitely_ up to something, but Kurt couldn’t see the harm in it so he finally relented.

“Well if it’s fate.”

~Fin~


End file.
